Traditional marketing has gone the way of the dial telephone, broadcast television, and the afternoon newspaper. Information isn’t simply available for the taking, details are flowing toward you at the speed of light. And it’s no longer a question of whether you can find it on the Web, the ordeal is filtering out the unnecessary, the useless and the redundant. Yet, the challenge for the marketer remains the same.
We have to cut through the clutter, improve the signal-to-noise ratio and move the needle. Cliches all, I know, but that’s the point.
The problem is that too many people still don’t get it. Clients remain stuck in the days of yore and most firms can’t really describe the zeitgeist or the benefits of new millennium marketing. Brand managers cling to strategies that have worked in the past and agency account managers are ill-equipped to explain the tactics of the future. Bricks and mortar is crashing into cloud computing and the collision doesn’t make a sound.
The new paradigm is beginning to come into focus. The old media will never die but respect has to be given to the new networks and channels of communication that are taking marketing to places only imagined in science fiction. The tip of the iceberg is all that’s visible to most people today but we’re living in a time of rapid innovation and compelling new possibilities. Change has already taken place and the pace of change is accelerating. We’re going in dozens of directions at once, a little bit out of control.
Resistance is useless. Embrace the new generation. Relax and explore the potential of new technologies. Promote the promise of marketing’s future, but pay respect to the experience of advertising’s venerable past.
